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Allen Toussaint

 
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Allen Toussaint

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Singer, songwriter, pianist, producer

Allen Toussaint likes to talk about the old days, when, as he related to Don Palmer in a 1986 Down Beat article, he and his friends would spend the day in the front two rooms of his parents’ shotgun house in New Orleans. Friends like Aaron Neville, Ernie K-Doe, Benny Spellman, and Irma Thomas would socialize and sing popular songs. Or Toussaint would write a song for Neville or Thomas and the others would sing behind him or her as they learned the song. Then they would head down to Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studios, where Toussaint had begun directing sessions for Minuit Records in 1960, singing all the way. Sometimes they would even return to the house afterwards and sing some more.

Not too much has changed since then. J&M Studios closed and was replaced in 1973 by the state-of-the-art Sea-Saint Studios, owned by Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn, a New Orleans record producer since the late ’60s. But Toussaint is still writing songs and making records with his friends, who now sometimes hail from outside the Crescent City. He has scored gold records producing and arranging material for Paul Simon and Patti LaBelle, and Paul McCartney, Joe Cocker, and Maria Muldaur have all recorded at Sea-Saint. Toussaint’s solo career has been an on-again-off-again affair; nonetheless, he remains one of New Orleans’s most important impresarios and in recent years has had success with his work in theater.

Influenced by Professor Longhair
Toussaint started playing piano when he was five or six, though he had only about two months of formal training, "and I don’t mean in succession," he noted in Down Beat. His sister helped him to read music and soon he was learning Grieg’s piano concerto from a record, transposing it up a few keys so that his flat piano would be in tune with the recording. He counts New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair as his greatest influence, as does Toussaint’s longtime associate Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack. In a 1991 piece in Cultural Vistas, Toussaint remembered, "When I heard Professor Longhair, good heavens, [it was] just wonderful. When I heard that [music] it was just a shock to my life because before that things were fairly mild. [Even] boogie woogie, you know, would get there and it would stay there, and everything had a different kind of order, but Professor Longhair [was] wild and untamed." In fact, Toussaint can be seen behind the keyboard in the 1982 documentary Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together, produced by Stevson J. Palfi, which traces the musical lineage passed down from Isidore "Tuts" Washington to Roy "Professor Longhair" Byrd to Toussaint.

Toussaint was performing in clubs like the famous Dew Drop Inn while he was still in his teens. It was at that venue that Dave Bartholomew, the Imperial Records executive who worked on many of pianist-singer Fats Domino’s hits, recognized the young player’s gift for imitating current musical styles. Toussaint was soon laying down Domino-like piano tracks on songs like "I Want You to Know" and "Little School Girl," onto which Domino would later dub his voice. He also toured briefly in 1955 with Shirley and Lee, but Toussaint soon returned to session work in New Orleans. There, while accompanying scores of singers at a three-day open audition, producers Murray Sporn and Danny Kesler realized Toussaint’s talent and arranged for him to cut his own album in just two weeks. In 1958, Toussaint’s all-instrumental The Wild Sounds of New Orleans was released by RCA and yielded the artist’s first hit, "Java," soon remade to great effect by Al Hirt, much as Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass would later gain fame with Toussaint’s "Whipped Cream," which became the theme for television’s popular Dating Game.

The Toussaint Sound
Toussaint’s most famous production hit with Minuit Records, at which he had become a fixture, was Ernie K-Doe’s "Mother-in-law," which hit Number One on the national charts in the summer of 1961. Meanwhile, what came to be known as the "Toussaint Sound" recurred in local hits such as Aaron Neville’s "Over You" and Irma Thomas’s "It’s Raining." Toussaint’s output at Minuit was curtailed in 1963, however, when he was inducted into the Army, where he served as a musician for two years. While he was in the service, Minuit was sold to interests outside the New Orleans area and Toussaint’s involvement would never be the same. Still, his time at Minuit and his exposure to the musicians there would have a lasting effect on him. As John Broven noted in his book Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans, "Toussaint was able to get away from the ensemble riffing sounds of Dave Bartholomew and also the Studio Band, mainly by allowing each instrumentalist a far freer role—at any moment the tenor would stutter through, the trumpet punchily interject, or the baritone moan a deep, bridging phrase. His own brilliant piano and the second line of the regular rhythm section of Chuck Badie and ex-Longhair drummer John Boudreaux provided the solid base."

Aside from their groundbreaking work with Toussaint, these musicians were also important because they formed the A.F.O. Combo, a project that sought not only to play, but to earn royalties instead of flat union wages. With Toussaint shouldering piano duties, the group saw enough success to create some bad blood with others on the New Orleans music scene; but they disbanded after an unsuccessful attempt to move the operation to California.

Formed Sansu, Nurtured Meters
Toussaint continued producing and arranging and started working with Marshall Sehorn in 1965; soon the two founded their own label, Sansu Enterprises. The mid-1960s saw the release of Lee Dorsey’s hits "Get Out of My Life Woman," "Working in a Coalmine," and "Holy Cow." But Sansu was also home to the highly influential and now-revered Meters, composed of Art Neville, Leo Nocentelli, George Porter, and Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste, who served as the label’s house band while also putting out their own string of late ’60s hits, including "Sophisticated Cissy," "Cissy Strut," and "Ease Back," which exemplified the best of the modern soulfunk sound. Toussaint told Audio’s Ted Fox, "The Meters were mostly a percussion group—not percussion instruments, but they played percussively. Everything they played was heavily syncopated. … Their songs were a conglomeration of firecrackers going off here, and pops there, explosions here. It was just fire." The Meters backed Dr. John on "Positively" and LaBelle on "Nightbirds"—both major hits that served to renew interest in the New Orleans sound.

In 1970 Toussaint was signed by Sceptor Records and, after a 12-year hiatus, was persuaded to make his second LP, Toussaint, for the Tiffany imprint. He then released a string of recordings for Warner Bros. The 1978 album Motion displayed less of the New Orleans sound, however, perhaps because it was produced by Atlantic Records co-founder Jerry Wexler, who may have been trying to mold Toussaint the way he had Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. In 1978, Toussaint again stopped recording his own material. Nevertheless, albums like 1975’s Southern Nights—which has been called Toussaint’s "Sergeant Pepper"—yielded song after song for other artists, including Glen Campbell, the Pointer Sisters, and Little Feat.

The mid- to late 70s was a period of phenomenal success for Toussaint. In 1976, Billboard named him "One of the Top 200 Executives of Tomorrow," and in 1977, "Southern Nights" was recognized by the performers’ rights society Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) as "The Most Performed Song of the Year." Campbell’s rendition of the song was nominated for a Grammy Award and for song of the year by the Country Music Association. In 1978, the Nashville Songwriters’ Association International honored Toussaint’s "Creative Genius in Words and Music"—a rare distinction for a practitioner of New Orleans rhythm and blues.

Broadened Horizons to Theater
But, the early 1980s were a slow time for Toussaint; Warner Bros, did not renew its contract with his Sea-Saint studios, for which Toussaint blamed himself. These years nonetheless afforded the artist time to explore theater music, serving as composer-lyricist for the stage production We Love You, William and the movie Black Samson. The music he wrote and performed in Vernel Bagneris’s Staggerlee won the Outer Critics Circle Award for best music in an Off-Broadway musical for the season 1986-1987. In 1991, the Broadway musical High Rollers Social and Pleasure Club’s short run at the Helen Hayes Theater earned another nomination for Toussaint’s efforts from the Outer Critics Circle, as well as a Tony nomination for the show’s star, Vivian Reed.

Though Toussaint may not do much touring, he continues to appear in Europe and Japan and remains active in New Orleans, playing at benefits or at the Jazz and Heritage Festival, where, in 1986, his closing performance set an all-time attendance record and where, in 1989, he debuted new songs with a 12-piece big band. That year Toussaint stated in Musician, "I’m finding performing fun now. It waatragic at one point. I’d felt my stuff was done in the studio to prepare the way for other folks to do it live. … Now I’d like to do even more performing. I’ve got a different focus when I’m onstage. I let people know that I’m not one of the stars. I’m the guy that wrote the songs, that’s all, and here I am." In 1991, Warner Bros./Reprise released The Allen Toussaint Collection.

Toussaint spends much of his time at Sea-Saint studios, where his son Clarence serves as his chief engineer and his daughter Alison as his personal assistant. He continues to turn out hits as a new generation, including artists as varied as pianist-singer Bruce Hornsby and hip-hoppers Heavy D and the Boyz, are influenced by the style he pioneered as the chief architect and master of the New Orleans sound.

Selected discography
The Wild Sounds of New Orleans, RCA Victor, 1958.
Toussaint, Tiffany/Sceptor, 1970.
From a Whisper to a Scream, Kent, 1970.
Life, Love, and Faith, Warner Bros./Reprise, 1972.
Southern Nights, Edsel, 1975.
Motion, Warner Bros., 1978.
The Allen Toussaint Collection, Warner Bros./Reprise, 1991.
(Contributor, with Chet Atkins) "Southern Nights," Rhythm, Country & Blues, MCA, 1994.
(With Crescent City Gold) The Ultimate Session, High Street, 1994.
The Stokes With Allen Toussaint, Bandy.
Bump City, Warner Bros.
(Contributor) New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 1976, Island.
(With Kip Hanrahan) Conjure: Music for the Texts of Ishmael Reed, American Clave.

Sources
Books
Broven, John, Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans, Pelican Publishing Company, 1978.

Periodicals
Audio, November 1987.
Billboard, March 21, 1987.
Cultural Vistas: Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Winter 1991.
Down Beat, April 1986; October 1986.
Go Magazine, August 1985.
Living Blues, September/October 1989.
Musician, December 1989.
Spin, August 1992.
Variety, April 1, 1987.

Additional information for this profile was provided by the New Orleans Entertainment Agency, 1992.
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AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:

Allen Toussaint

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  • Genres: Rhythm & Blues

Biography

Producer, songwriter, arranger, session pianist, solo artist -- Allen Toussaint has worn all these hats over the course of his lengthy and prolific career, and his behind-the-scenes work alone would have been enough to make him a legend of New Orleans R&B. Thanks to his work with numerous other artists, Toussaint bore an enormous amount of responsibility for the sound of R&B in the Crescent City from the '60s on into the '70s. His productions kept with the times, moving from rollicking, earthy soul in the '60s to gritty, rambunctious funk in the '70s. As a composer, Toussaint proved himself a consistent hitmaker, penning more than a few gems that have since become R&B standards and been covered by countless artists working in many different styles. In keeping with that across-the-board appeal, Toussaint has worked in some supporting capacity for a wide variety of rock and blues legends, particularly from the '70s on. On top of all that, Toussaint waxed his own records from time to time, enjoying a creative peak in the '70s with several albums that highlighted his laid-back vocals and elegantly funky piano work. Even if he wasn't always the most visible figure, Toussaint's contributions to New Orleans music -- and to rock & roll in general -- were such that he earned induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Toussaint was born January 14, 1938, in New Orleans, and began learning piano at age seven, inspired by Professor Longhair; his style later grew to include elements of Fats Domino, Huey "Piano" Smith, and Ray Charles. As a teenager, he played in a band called the Flamingoes with bluesman Snooks Eaglin. Toussaint caught his first professional break at age 17, when Earl King tapped him to fill in for Smith at a live gig. Not long after, famed producer/songwriter Dave Bartholomew -- whose role in New Orleans R&B during the '50s was fairly analogous to Toussaint's later career -- hired him to lay down the piano parts at a Fats Domino recording session for which Domino himself was unavailable. Bartholomew made regular use of Toussaint, most notably on further sessions for Domino and Smiley Lewis, and demand for the young pianist's services grew quickly, especially after he first displayed his talent as an arranger on saxman Lee Allen's biggest hit, "Walkin' with Mr. Lee." In 1958, Toussaint recorded an instrumental album for RCA called The Wild Sound of New Orleans, under the alias Tousan; one of his original compositions for the record, "Java," went on to become a smash hit for Dixieland jazz trumpeter Al Hirt five years later. Toussaint also began writing under the pseudonym Naomi Neville, after his mother's maiden name.

In 1960, Toussaint was hired by Joe Banashak as an A&R man for the brand-new Minit label; in practice, he wound up masterminding most of the label's recording sessions. It was here that Toussaint truly began to build his legend. His first national success as a producer came with Jessie Hill's R&B Top Five smash "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" in 1960, and the classic hits came fast and furious after that: Ernie K-Doe's pop and R&B number one "Mother-in-Law" (a Toussaint composition), Benny Spellman's "Fortune Teller," and "Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)" (both Toussaint tunes written as Naomi Neville, with the former later covered by the Rolling Stones), Chris Kenner's original version of "Land of 1000 Dances," Lee Dorsey's "Ya Ya," and numerous sides with New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas. Toussaint's singular touch on all these records redefined the sound of New Orleans R&B for a new decade. When Banashak left Minit to found another label, Instant, Toussaint went with him to fulfill much the same duties; he also freelanced elsewhere, most prominently with Dorsey's recordings for the Fury label, and cut a few low-profile singles of his own, mostly for Seville. In 1963, Toussaint was drafted into the military, during which time he recorded with his backing band the Stokes while on leave; one of their tunes, the Naomi Neville credit "Whipped Cream," was covered by Herb Alpert in 1965 for an instrumental hit, which was in turn later adopted as the theme for TV's The Dating Game.

Upon his discharge in 1965, Toussaint teamed up with fellow producer Marshall Sehorn to form a production company and record label, Sansu Enterprises. Sansu recorded the likes of Betty Harris, Earl King, Chris Kenner, and Lou Johnson, among others, often leasing their singles to larger labels for official release. Their most profitable association was with Lee Dorsey, who returned to the upper reaches of the R&B charts with Toussaint-penned hits like "Ride Your Pony," the oft-covered "Get Out of My Life Woman," the immortal "Working in a Coalmine," and "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On)" (covered by jazzman Lou Donaldson). In 1966, Sansu also engaged the services of a house band dubbed the Meters, who supplied backing for nearly all of the company's productions; after the Meters started making their own records in 1969 (produced by Toussaint), they developed into arguably the top instrumental funk ensemble of the '70s outside of the J.B.'s.

In 1971, Toussaint recorded his first solo album in over a decade for Scepter, calling it simply Toussaint (it was later reissued in the U.K. as From a Whisper to a Scream, after its best-known track). The following year, he moved up to Reprise for Life, Love and Faith, and he and Sehorn opened a state-of-the-art recording studio in New Orleans called Sea-Saint, which became the site for most of his subsequent projects. In addition to his solo records, Toussaint was getting more high-profile offers for outside work during the first half of the '70s. He did horn arrangements for the Band, Paul Simon, Little Feat, and Sandy Denny, and his continued work with the Meters was moving him into contemporary funk with a harder edge than his own albums. In fact, he wound up producing two of New Orleans' greatest funk records: Dr. John's Top Ten hit "Right Place, Wrong Time" and LaBelle's number one disco-funk smash "Lady Marmalade." In 1975, Toussaint released what many regarded as his finest solo album, Southern Nights; the title track went on to become a huge hit for country-pop superstar Glen Campbell, and "What Do You Want the Girl to Do?" was covered by Boz Scaggs, Lowell George, and Bonnie Raitt.

In 1976, Toussaint produced the Meters-related group the Wild Tchoupitoulas, whose self-titled debut was hailed as a classic of New Orleans funk. The record's experimentalism signaled a growing desire to branch out in the Meters camp, though, which would soon cause the band's split with Toussaint and, eventually, each other. The absence of their unerring sense of groove was noticeable on Toussaint's final solo LP for quite some time, 1978's Motion. Toussaint's activities tailed off in the years that followed; he still produced, arranged, and played piano on selected projects, which included albums by blues artists Etta James and Albert King, and rockers Elvis Costello and Joe Cocker, among others. In the meantime, his extensive song catalog was still mined regularly for cover material; the Lee Dorsey period was the most fertile, not just for "Working in a Coalmine" (Devo, the Judds), but lesser-known items like "Yes We Can" (the Pointer Sisters), "Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley" (Robert Palmer), and "Freedom for the Stallion" (the Oak Ridge Boys, among others). In addition, "Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)" was a hit for Three Dog Night, and Bonnie Raitt cut a well-received version of "What Is Success." The Allen Toussaint Collection, a fine overview of his major-label recordings in the '70s, was released in 1991. In 1996, Toussaint formed a new label, NYNO, and recorded a full album of new material at his Sea-Saint studio, titled Connected. Toussaint also began recording newer Crescent City artists in hopes of preserving the classic New Orleans sound. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 in the non-performer category. Going Places, attributed to Allen Toussaint's Jazzity Project, appeared in 2005, followed by the Joe Henry-produced The Bright Mississippi from Nonesuch Records in 2009. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Allen Toussaint

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This article is about the musician. For the psychiatrist and academic, see Alvin F. Poussaint.
Allen Toussaint

Toussaint performing in Hollywood, Florida in 2007
Background information
Born 14 January 1938 (1938-01-14) (age 74)
Gert Town, Louisiana, U.S.
Origin New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Genres Rhythm and blues
Occupations Musician, composer, arranger, record producer
Instruments Vocals, piano,
Years active 1955–present
Labels RCA Victor, Minit, Instant, Reprise/Warner Bros., Nonesuch/Elektra
Associated acts The Band
Elvis Costello
Labelle

Allen Toussaint (IPA: /ˈtuːseɪnt/; born January 14, 1938) is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.

Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)", "Southern Nights," "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky", "I'll Take a Melody" and "Mother-in-Law".[1]

Contents

Biography

Early life and career

Toussaint grew up in a shotgun house in the New Orleans neighborhood of Gert Town, where his mother welcomed and fed all manner of musicians as they practiced and recorded with her son. After a lucky break at age 17 in which he stood in for Huey Smith at a performance with Earl King's band in Prichard, Alabama,[2] Toussaint was introduced to a group of local musicians who performed regularly at a night club on LaSalle street Uptown; they were known as the Dew Drop Set.[3] Initially, he recorded for RCA Victor as Al Tousan and recorded an album of instrumentals, including the song "Java", which years later became a big hit for Al Hirt (also on RCA).

In his early years Toussaint worked mainly for Joe Banashak's Minit Records and Instant Records, but after Minit was sold to its distributor, he teamed up with Marshall Sehorn, starting their own record label variously known as Tou-Sea, Sansu, Deesu or Kansu. In 1973 Toussaint and Sehorn created the Sea-Saint recording studio in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans.[4]

Success in the 1960s and 1970s

In the early 1960s he wrote and produced a string of hits for New Orleans R&B artists such as Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas, Art and Aaron Neville, The Showmen, and Lee Dorsey. Some of his songs from this period were published under the pseudonym "Naomi Neville", such as "Ruler of My Heart", recorded by Irma Thomas. The song would go on to be recorded by Otis Redding under the title "Pain in My Heart". In 1964, "A Certain Girl" (originally by Ernie K-Doe) was the B-side of the first single release by The Yardbirds; the song was released again in 1980 by Warren Zevon. A two-sided 1962 hit by Benny Spellman comprised "Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)," later covered by The O'Jays and Ringo Starr, and the simple but effective "Fortune Teller," which was covered by many 1960s rock groups including The Rolling Stones, The Nashville Teens, The Who, The Hollies, ex-Searchers founder member Tony Jackson and more recently (2007) by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on Raising Sand. A significant early influence was the second-line piano style of Professor Longhair.

Toussaint's piano and arrangements show up on hundreds of records during the early 1960s on records by Lee Dorsey, Chris Kenner, and scores of other artists.

Starting in the 1970s, he switched gears to a funkier sound, writing and producing for The Meters, Dr John, and the Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indians tribe. He also began to work with non-New Orleans artists such as B.J. Thomas,[5] Robert Palmer, Willy DeVille, Sandy Denny, Elkie Brooks, Solomon Burke, Scottish soul singer Frankie Miller[6] and southern rocker Mylon LeFevre. He arranged horn music for The Band's 1971 album Cahoots, plus Rock of Ages and The Last Waltz film, in conjunction with arranging horn parts for their concert repertoire. Boz Scaggs recorded Toussaint's "What Do You Want the Girl to Do?" on his 1976 album Silk Degrees, which reached #2 on the U.S. pop albums chart. In 1976 he also collaborated with John Mayall on the album Notice to Appear.

Toussaint also launched his own solo career, which peaked in the '70s with the albums From a Whisper to a Scream and Southern Nights. It was during this time that he teamed with Labelle, and produced their highly acclaimed 1975 album Nightbirds, which spawned the Number One hit, "Lady Marmalade". The same year, Toussaint collaborated with Paul McCartney and Wings for their hit album Venus and Mars. Two years later, Glen Campbell covered Toussaint's "Southern Nights" and carried the song to Number One on the Pop, Country and Adult-Contemporary Charts. Along with many of his contemporaries, Toussaint found that interest in his compositions was rekindled when his work began to be sampled by hip hop artists in the 1980s and 1990s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and, in 2009, The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

2000s

Contrary to rumors at the time, Toussaint did not take refuge at the Louisiana Superdome in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Instead, Toussaint weathered the storm in the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel. After the hurricane Toussaint left New Orleans for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and eventually settled in New York City, where he is currently living while his house is being rebuilt. His first television appearance after the hurricane was on the September 7, 2005 episode of The Late Show with David Letterman, sitting in with Paul Shaffer and his CBS Orchestra. Toussaint performed regularly at Joe's Pub in New York City through 2009.

The River in Reverse, Toussaint's collaborative album with Elvis Costello, was released on 29 May 2006 in the UK on the Verve label, by Universal Classics and Jazz UCJ. It was recorded in Hollywood and, notably, in Toussaint's native New Orleans as the first major studio session to take place after Hurricane Katrina.[7]

In 2007, Toussaint performed a duet with Paul McCartney of a song by fellow New Orleans musician and resident Fats Domino, "I Want to Walk You Home", as their contribution to Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (Vanguard).[8]

In 2008, Toussaint's song "Sweet Touch of Love" was used in a deodorant commercial for the Axe (Lynx) brand. The commercial won a Gold Lion at the 2008 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. In February 2008, Toussaint appeared on Le Show, the Harry Shearer show broadcast on NPR via KCRW.

Toussaint appeared in London in August 2008, where he performed a gig at The Roundhouse. In October 2008 he performed at Festival New Orleans at The O2 alongside acts such as Dr. John and Buckwheat Zydeco.[9] Sponsored by Quint Davis of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Philip Anschutz, the event was intended to promote New Orleans music and culture and to revive the once-lucrative tourist trade that had been almost completely lost following the flooding of Hurricane Katrina.[9] After his second performance at the festival, Toussaint appeared alongside then-Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, Mitch Landrieu. The following day, he performed again in London at the NFL Tailgate Party.

Toussaint performed a taping for the popular PBS series Austin City Limits on June 30, 2009 as part of the show's 35th anniversary season. He played instrumentals from his most recent CD, "The Bright Mississippi", as well as many songs from his back catalog. He performed with Levon Helm and his band on Imus in the Morning on October 9, 2009. In December 2009 he was featured on Elvis Costello's "Spectacle" program on the Sundance Channel, singing "A Certain Girl". Toussaint appeared in Eric Clapton's 2010 album, Clapton, in two Fats Waller covers, "My Very Good Friend the Milkman" and "When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful".

Discography

Albums

Solo

  • The Wild Sound of New Orleans (1958)
  • From a Whisper to a Scream (1970)
  • Toussaint (1971)
  • Life, Love And Faith (1972)
  • Southern Nights (1975)
  • Motion (1978)
  • I Love A Carnival Ball, Mr Mardi Gras Starring Allen Toussaint (1987)
  • The Allen Toussaint Collection (1991)
  • The Wild Sound of New Orleans: The Complete 'Tousan' Sessions (1994)
  • Connected (1996)
  • A New Orleans Christmas (1997)
  • A Taste Of New Orleans (1999)
  • Finger Poppin' & Stompin' Feet (2002)
  • Allen Toussaint's Jazzity Project: Going Places (2004)
  • The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (2005)
  • I Believe To My Soul (2005)
  • The River in Reverse, with Elvis Costello (2006)
  • The Bright Mississippi (2009)

Other Contributions

Video

  • Putting the River in Reverse (DVD) (2006)
  • Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together (DVD) Stevenson Productions 001
  • Music Conversation: Allen Toussaint & Larry Appelbaum [10]

Covers

References

  1. ^ "New Orleans greats Allen Toussaint, Ernie K-Doe to join Louisiana Music Hall of Fame" - San Francisco Examiner
  2. ^ http://www.nynorecords.com/allen.shtml
  3. ^ Alison Fensterstock, "On Top of the Charts: Allen Toussaint is as sharp and prolific as ever", Gambit Weekly (New Orleans), May 1, 2007, pg. 23 (archives online at www.bestofneworleans.com)
  4. ^ Alison Fensterstock, op. cit.
  5. ^ See Longhorns & Londonbridges.
  6. ^ See High Life.
  7. ^ "Stemming the Tide", New Orleans Gambit Weekly by Alison Fensterstock, Cynthia Joyce and David Lee Simmons. April 25, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2008
  8. ^ Fats Domino "Alive and Kicking" by William Vitka. February 25, 2006. Domino's experiences during Hurricane Katrina were similar to Toussaint's. Domino's house was flooded to the roof and he was initially feared dead. (The title of the tribute album is with reference to Domino returning to his New Orleans home.)]
  9. ^ a b Massarik, Jack (2008-10-27). "The Saints Come Marching in at O2 jazz festival". Evening Standard. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/gig-23397064-details/Jazz:+New+Orleans+Weekend+/gigReview.do?reviewId=23578213. 
  10. ^ Music Conversation: Allen Toussaint & Larry Appelbaum. Washington, DC: Library of Congress. 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=mQyf6gpdpbY. Retrieved 2012-01-25. 
  11. ^ Amazon.com: Jerry Garcia Band: Jerry Garcia Band: Music
  12. ^ Amazon.com: Reflections: Jerry Garcia: Music
  13. ^ Amazon.com: After Midnight: Kean College, 2/28/80: Jerry Garcia Band: Music
  14. ^ Amazon.com: New Traditionalists: Devo: Music
  15. ^ Amazon.com: Jubilation: Band: Music
  16. ^ Amazon.com: Waiting for Columbus: Little Feat: Music
  17. ^ Amazon.com: Waiting for Columbus: Little Feat: Music
  18. ^ Amazon.com: The Bonnie Raitt Collection: Bonnie Raitt: Music
  19. ^ Phish: Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley
  20. ^ Notes about Raising Sand on www.robertplantalisonkrauss.com

External links

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Awards
First
None recognized before
 AMA Lifetime Achievement Award for Producer/Engineer
2006		 Succeeded by
Jim Dickinson

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
Related topics:
Golden Classics (1990 Album by Lee Dorsey)
New Orleans Heat [Rhino] (1978 Album by Albert King)
Like It 'Tis (1967 Album by Aaron Neville)

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